wk 42...Extra FX - Graph'It colouring challenge with tutorials

Welcome back to your Friday Graph'It colouring treat!

Our challenge for you this week is

Extra FX

Which basically translates as some extra little colouring effects we want you to show us! This can be spotty effects, textures, backgrounds, fancy schmancy - the result is up to you! 

You have until Oct 31st at noon GMT to enter and you can use any brand of alcohol marker to enter - our random winner will receive a pack of Graph'Its and the DT will choose their Top 3!

Now last week we had a tutorial from Nikky and although this doesnt follow the theme for this week let's see the next video.....

Nikky...Hi again! I've had a bad week with hurting my back and having waited all week for it to wear off it did so this morning only I awoke to a really nasty cold, bad throat and no voice! Why am I telling you this?...in the hope you'll forgive me for losing/deleting the other 2 videos in the series we started last week!
I filmed all 4 together at the same time and on this week's version for hair the first video gets cut off when my battery died right near the end (I'm forever the professional haha!)...so there was 2 videos for this section and then a 3rd for the clothing but I *cough cough* appear to have deleted them both! I'm not in any state to re-film this for you this week so can only apologise but I still wanted to share this with you and I promise I will do a PROPER series in the next couple of weeks again!
So here is round 2 of this image...

To watch Video 1 just go to last week's post here

So on with the challenge!...

To make it extra hard for the DT for this challenge they all had to add some kind of background effects, so let's see what they've made!....

Yvonne - Hi there everyone. Well I made my first Halloween card earlier on in the week and I made a lovely Halloween sky with Distress Inks, after I was finished I thought to myself, I bet I could do that with Graph'Its, so here is my effort at my own background using these fabulous markers. The Spooky House, Dracula and the Mummy are all available as instant downloads from Polkadoodles. 

Markers used are as follows:

Sky:  2105, 2110, 2120, 2140, 2160, 2150, 2180

Grass:  8280, 8270, 9504

Dracula:  4125, 4155, 4170, 6140, 6175, 6185, 9505, 9507, 9508, 9509, 9905 & 9099

Mummy:  9500, 9502 and lots of Blender

 House Windows:  1150, 1250

Pumpkins:  2110, 2150, 2180

Penni - I decided to create a different type of background, more abstract / fantasy

Graph'It Markers used 

Background - 8240, 7220, 1170 with Mix'It Fluid 

Skin - 4170, 4125, 4120

Hair - 9404 and 0000

Dress - 1180, 1110, 1250

Ballet Slippers - 4135, 5140

Here's a close-up

There is a Photo Tutorial on my blog showing how I created this background effect. 

Anjie - When I saw this challenge I must admit I panicked a little bit, well quite a lot actually! While I'm ok at colouring images, creating backgrounds I can't do! Anyway I had a go and this is what I came up with.

To create the background, after colouring the sky I used the blender to take out some of the colour in the shape of clouds.

The colours I used are:

Skin: 4125, 4150, 4135, 4145, 3120, 3210

Hair: 3210, 3245, 3250, 3255

Clothes: 8130, 8140, 8150, 8160

Sky: 7105

Grass: 8110, 8120, 8130, 8240, 8270

More info on the rest of the card is on my blog

Claire Boelema - I've been poorly this week and as such didn't have time to spend colouring up images and creating fancy backgrounds. So I made a really quick background using Graph'It markers, acetate and Mix It Fluid. Full details can be found on my blog.

Graph'It Markers Used

1180, 2150, 5160 and 7290

Mix It Fluid

Claire C I've used my Graph'It markers to colour the leaves on the background of my card as well as the main image. I'm really loving this technique as the markers create a gorgeous effect on Maimeri Iridescent medium

colours used: 

Hair: 3145, 3120, 1230,1210

Skin: 4180,4155, 4115, 4125 (plus 4135)

Dress: 4135, 4145, 5115

Greens: 8220, 82508280

Browns: 3180, 3160, 3145, 

Leaves: 2150, 5280, 1270, 8280 and Mix'It fluid

What fabulous ideas the team have come up with! 

The winners from our Pink/Light Source challenge are:

#3 Vic

Well done! Email us at sales@polkadoodles.co.uk quoting code GIw420001 to claim your prize of a fab set of Graph'it markers!

And the Design Team's Top 3 this week are:

#13 Coops

#12 Nini

#4 Coldwaters2

We'll be back next week with the winners from the last challenge and more inspiration - can't wait to see your entries for this challenge!

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wk 41... Autumn Colours - Inspiration. Graph'It Markers Colouring Challenge

Welcome back to another week of luscious Graph'It marker inspiration!

Before we get to business make sure you read right to the bottom of this week's post as there is an awesome tutorial video for you from Nikky - a must-see!

This week we have more inspiration for you for our current challenge which is

AUTUMN COLOURS

and you can 

ENTER HERE

The winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  
You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you, we love seeing all your colouring creations every week and appreciate all your entries!.  
You have until 17th October to enter.  

So let's see what the team have been colouring!...

Yvonne - Hello there! I'm here with some mid challenge inspiration for the Autumn Colours challenge.  I loved this challenge and had great fun colouring the image up with my Graph'It Markers.  More details are on my blog.

The markers used are:

Skin:  4125, 4150, 3210, 4155, 4135, 4145 & 8160

Hair:  2150, 3110, 3140, 3150

Hat & Coat: 2105, 2110, 2150, 2180

Trousers & Scarf: 3245, 3250, 3255

Leaves:  2105, 2120,2140

Background:  2105, 2110, 2140, 3210, 4180

Claire C I've made a canvas using one of Nikky's gorgeous new images 'Octavia thinking' coloured of course with my Graph'It markers. I printed her on to printable canvas and then stuck this to my canvas  once I'd coloured her. I also used my Graph'Its to add some interest to the background. I created a stencilled background using PanPastels and  stencilled leaves with Maimeri Iridescent Medium and the polkadots around the edges of the canvas and coloured them with my Graph'its, they look lovely and shimmery in real life. You can find all the details on my blog.....

Colours used:

Skin: 4180, 4155, 4115 4125, 4135, 5115

Hair: 3170, 3150,3145, 1230

Dress: 8270,8250,8220

Leaves: 1280, 8270, 2130, 5280, 3145

Dots around the edges: 8270

Penni - I loved colouring this image for our Autumn Colours Challenge - I tend to stick with pastels, so it was good to use something a little different :)

Graph'It Markers used 

Jeans - 3210, 3245, 3250

I coloured the Jeans first and then dabbed them using a scrap of denim sprayed with Mix'It Fluid

I then when on a coloured the rest of the image

Skin - 4120, 4125, 4155, 4170

Cheeks - 4135

Lips - 5110, 5140

Eyes - 3130

Blouse - 9401, 9402, 9404, 5140, 5110

Hair - 2130, 2110, 2105

Anjie - Here is my make for the Autumn Colours challenge....

The Graph'It Markers I have used are:

Skin: 4125, 4150, 4135, 4145, 3210, 3120

Hair: 3210, 3245, 3250, 3255

Oranges: 2120, 2130, 2140

Browns: 3160, 3170, 3180
All other detail can be found on my blog by clicking on my name above.

Claire Boelema -This is my inspiration project for the Autumn challenge. I love the warm rich palette of these colours.Full details can be found on my blog.

Graph'It Markers Used:

Skin 4115,4125, 4135,4155, 3110

Hair 3110, 3125

Dress 2105, 2110, 2140, 2170

Grass 8260, 8280, 8290

Butterflies 6160

Nikky....Hello!! This week rather than make a card for you I've made a tutorial video - now this is split down into 4 series of videos which I will release weekly for you to help you practice practice practice! In these videos I share the colour choices and lots of hints and tips so whether you're just starting with Graph'It or been using them for a while hopefully you will find something useful along the way. 

So let's get to it! Week One is Skin!....

Wow!! What fantastic makes we have this week and some of those colour combo's are just terrific!! Hope you enjoyed the video too - make sure you pop back next week where Nikky will then share the video for the Hair!

Don't forget the challenge is still

AUTUMN COLOURS

and you can 

ENTER HERE

The winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  
You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you, we love seeing all your colouring creations every week and appreciate all your entries!.  
You have until 17th October to enter.  

Our Random Winner from last time's challenge which was Amazing Hair is:

#3 Vic

Well done! Email us at sales@polkadoodles.co.uk quoting code GIw380001 to claim your prize of a fab set of Graph'it markers!

And the Design Team's Top 3 are:

#4 Coldwaters2

#13 Coops

#12 Nini

Well done everyone! Grab your badges from the sidebar - thanks so much for joining in with us we truly love to see your work!

wk 40....Autumn Colours - Graph'It Colouring Challenge

Welcome back to another week at Graph'It and more awesome colouring ideas galore...

If you're around the North West of the UK this weekend head over to Hunkydory Crafts at Preston and see Nikky demonstrating Graph'It over the weekend - she's there Saturday AND Sunday so lots of chances to ask all those colouring questions and get all those hints and tips!

Our challenge for you this week is

Autumn colours

The winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  
You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you, we love seeing all your colouring creations every week and appreciate all your entries!.  
You have until 17th October to enter.  
The winner of our last challenge will be announced next week.

Don't forget we have a Graph'It YouTube channel and can see some fab tutorials HERE if you need extra help.

Nikky - I looove Autumn it's my 2nd favourite season and ever since I was a kid my favourite colours have always included neutrals and I was always a brown shoe girl at school LOL!  I decided to just go quite simple with my colour tones and steer away from the oranges - the fantastic thing with Graph'It markers is that the range of browns is phenomenal and there are loads to choose from. In Graph'It it sometimes looks like there are no paler pastel tones but it's not true - just pull in the soft skintones and it totally extends the colour palette for you...I also tried a new skin combo here and I really like it....

 This photo looks a different colour but is actually a more true colour than the one above for some reason...I used:

Skin: 4125, 4150, 3120 - cheeks 4145, 4135

Dress: 1230, 1270, blender

Hair: 4110, 3210, 3245, 3255, 3290

Shadows: 9400, 9403

Background: 4150, 3210, 3230

Lizzy-  Hello colour friends! I have made my autumn colors card with a cute little girlie.   I decided to try a new hair color combo for this project.  I wanted a "carrot top" color to go with her freckles. To get the hair strands I discovered it works better if you let your ink dry a little bit before adding them.  These markers blend so beautifully that they will blend out if the ink is too wet.

Here are my color combinations used for this card:

skin: 4120, 4125, 4155, 4135

hair: 2105, 2110, 2120, 2130, 3130

red: 5220, 5240, 5270, 5280

brown: 3210, 3245, 3250, 3280, 3290

Kevin....I love Autumnal colours all the rich rusts and golds with a mix of greens and browns

Graph'It Markers used

Skin 4120.4135.4155.4170.4180.

Hair. 3110.3125.1280.

Clothing & Bags.1140.1210.1250.2105.2140

2160.8110,8120

Wendy - For my card I've used a Fall Fairy image.  I wish I'd coloured her dress in green so that the wings would stand out more - I used loads of different colours to get the effect I wanted.

Here's the list of colours I used:-

Face - 4115  4120  4155  4180  4145  4125  3120  Eyes - 3150  3110  3125  7110  7115

Skin - 4115  4120  4155  4180

Hair - 1230  1270  1250  2120  3125  1150

Head dress - 5220  1250  8280  8290  2160  1150  8220  3130  1230  2150

Wings & dress - 5270  5250  5115  2140  1140  1150  1110  1250  2105  3215  2180  3130  1130

Janet I've used a flower image in my favourite Autumn colours with some die cut leaves. I have kept it simple this week and used a lot less colours than I usually do.

The colours I have used are

Leaves - 8280, 8220

Flowers - 4175, 5110, 5210, 4145

Flower centres - 1180, 1250

Cara

Autumn is my most favourite season ...... mostly because it involves Halloween!!! So of course I decided to go with Halloween colours to represent Autumn on my card.

I love the deep dark tones you can achieve with the Graph'it markers and shadows are so easy with the fab range of grays available. (see my blog for more details on the adorable new image I used ) 

 Graph'it Markers used:

Skin: 3120, 4155, 4150,4115 4135 (cheeks)

Hair: Neutral Grays

Cloak and Hat: 9507, 6185, 6175, 6140

Dress and shoes: 9507: 8190,8180,8150 

Lovely projects and amazing colouring from the team again this week!

Don't forget, the winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  

You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you, we love seeing all your colouring creations every week and appreciate all your entries!.  

You have until 17th October to enter.  

The winner of our last challenge will be announced next week - see you then!

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wk 39 - Pink and Light - Graph'It Colouring challenge

Welcome back to another week of Colouring Inspiration with the Graph'It team!

This is our week of extra inspiration for our current challenge which you can 

enter HERE

Our challenge for you,  dear readers is

PINK

But we asked the Design Team to inspire you with lots of techniques for 

Light Direction - it's a thing lots of people seem to struggle with so hopefully we might help you with it this week....

Yes we're making it hard for the team but easy for you haha!

The winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you.  You have until 3rd October to enter.

You can see the winners of our last challenge at the bottom of this post....

Cara....For this challenge I decided to have my light source coming from the top right .... I generally have my light source coming from this direction.  A tip I once learned is to stand an object (maybe a glue pot or something) next to your image and pretend it is your light source ..... it works for me anyways lol!  I've used the super cute Dollie Daydream Birthday Digi Stamp from Polkadoodles.

Graphit's used:

Skin: 3120, 4155, 4150, 4115, 4135 (cheeks)

Hair: 3290, 3255, 3250, 3245, 3210

Jeans: Cool Greys 9100-9108

Top: 2140, 2120, 2110, 2105

Green: 7290, 7270, 7250

Shadows: cool grey 9100, 9102,9103

Lizzy... So I got a little over zealous with my project for the light source theme this week.  I found this image from The Paper Shelter and thought it would be great for having two sources of light.  Well it is great but it was a little more difficult than I had anticipated. haha  So I have the glowing bottle of dragons blood from the left and then her book of spells a little lower on the right. 

 This was my first attempt with a "glowing" object and I think I will try it again.  It was fun to play with.  I used my lightest yellow shade a bit on her hair, shoulder, and hands trying to make the glow on her as well.  I wanted her book to look aged as well as glowing so I over saturated the paper to get the effect.

Here is my list of Graph'it Marker color combinations used:

Skin: 4120, 4125, 4155, 4180, 4135, 4175, 5140

Hair: 1210, 2105, 3110, 3170, 3180

Purple: 6110, 6120, 6140, 6175

Green: 8110, 8240, 8260, 8270

Orange: 2105, 2110, 2150, 2180

Cauldron: 9405, 9404, 9403, 9402, 9401

Black: 9909, 9509, 9506, 9505, 9504

Book: 1110, 1140, 1150, 1270, 1250

Janet
I think my image has an obvious light source, the lamp which casts it's light down the centre of the characters. This is an image from Polkadoodles called Hollybobs Choir.

The main Graph'it marker colours I have used are:

Lamp - 4110, 1180, 1250, 2105, 1110, 9100, 9102

Her - 5240, 5215, 4135, 9534, 3230, 1150

Him- 7180, 7125, 7105, 9100, 9101

Skin - 4170, 4155, 4115, 4125, 7125, 4135

Wendy - I chose this digi image called Emily Party from Polkadoodles as it's perfect for the light source challenge.  I enjoyed colouring her and hope I've managed to interpret the light coming from the candle correctly.

I've used so many different colours for this that I got totally confused when I was listing them as I had put some away before writing them down.  So sorry I will do better next time.

Kevin
I have gone for the light source coming from the left side of the image, if you are not sure how to work out your light source, stand a book at the side of your image to create some shade and then colour your image.

Graph'It markers used.

Skin.4110.4135.4145.4170.

Hair. 1210.1250.1270.4110.

Dress & boots. 7260.7270.7290.

Bags. 8110.8130.2105.1115.5115.5110.7125.7130.

Fabulous colouring and some fantastic light source inspiration for you all!

So onto our Random Winner from our last challenge, Amazing Hair. Our winner chosen by Random. org is

No 24 Jo

please email us here quoting code GIw3900371 to win together with your snail mail address so we can send your prize!

And the Top 3 chosen by the team are:

#10  Rachel Gillham
#12  Jackie C
#3  Deborah Deruyck

Thanks so much for everyone's entries, we look forward to seeing you next time!

wk 38 Pink/Light Direction - Graph'It Colouring challenge

Welcome back to another fabulous Graph'It colouring challenge!

Our challenge for you,  dearest readers is

PINK

But this week we asked the Design Team to inspire you with lots of techniques for 

Light Direction - it's a thing lots of people seem to struggle with so hopefully we might help you with it this week....

Yes we're making it hard for the team but easy for you haha!

The winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you. 

The winner of our last challenge will be announced next week.

Let's see what the team have made for us...

Nikky...I love thinking about where the light direction is coming from when I colour and I always try to do it from different angles if I can rather than just straight ahead because it can really change the way your image looks considerably. Just have a play around, you'll be surprised at the results. Another great trick is if you make a little booboo by using the wrong colour on your image or you just don't like what you did - pick up your greys or some yellow tones and add shadows or light over the top and it will transform your image - it then becomes about the light and shade rather than the actual colours you've used so it's a great way to save an images otherwise destined for the trash!
I haven't made a card for you but I wanted to show you this great little technique for helping where you need to add light and shade:
Take your image and either stamp or print it twice. Then mark up one with a pencil as shown - this is a failsafe way of mapping out your light areas before you start and you can keep this in a journal for future reference.

 I coloured onto watercolour card with this image - it certainly makes you think about your shading and it takes longer to see the final results so you kinda have to wait a little or you'll overdo things!

I used: 
Face: 4125, 4150, 3210. 4145, 4135  
This photo makes the skin look much yellower than it is in real life (I think at some point I might have coloured the whole face with 4115 instead of 4125 without realising I'd picked up the wrong marker!) but I don't mind as it just adds to the overall tone of the light source - also the watercolour paper has a cream tone to it and that did affect the underlying skintone when I laid the first colour down, it was quite noticable as I personally don't like the warmer tones)...
Hair: 3210, 3245, 3250, 3280, 3290
Clothing:  4150, 3210, 9400, 9401
Background/shadows: 3210, 9400, 9401

Penni:-  I chose to have my light source directed straight from the front.  Here's my card ....

Graph'It Markers used:

Jeans - 7105, 7110, 7115, 7119 

After colouring the jeans, I used some scrap denim sprayed with some Mix'It Fluid and dabbed firmly to give a textured appearance.  

I then coloured the rest of the image.

Skin - 4120, 4125, 4155, 4170, 4135 (cheeks & lips)

Hair - 2105, 2110, 2130

Blouse - 8110, 8120, 9201

Scarf - 5115, 5120

Yvonne - Hi everyone, well this challenge was really hard for me, a specific light source, made me want to hide. I interpreted the challenge theme as the item giving light and how it fell on the image. Eventually  I found an image with a light bulb - I know, it's not the best idea but I ploughed ahead anyway! I hope you can see where the light falls.

Markers used are as follows:

Skin:  4120, 4155, 4150, 3210, 4145, 4135, 4175

Hair:  1250, 3110, 3140, 3160

Nightdress:  9103, 9104, 9105, 9106

Bedspread:  5110, 5120, 5210, 5220, 5245

Cushion:  9500, 9502, 9503, 5210, 5220, 5245

Lightbulb:  1110, 1180 & blender

Claire C Well  Nikky has really challenged us this time hasn't she? I've used several candles as the light source on my card...

Colours used:

Skin: 4180, 4155, 4115, 4125, 3120

Hair: 9909, 9507,9503,9500,1140,1110

Clothes and Tail: 7270,7240,7220,7210

Candles: 2110, 1180, 1140,1110

plus 8210, 5120 and blender

Anjie - I have coloured this as though the light source is from the top right.

The colours I have used are:

Skin: 4125, 4150, 4135, 4145, 3120, 3210

Hair: 7140, 7145, 7150

Trousers: 3110, 3120, 3125

Top, shoes and can: 5110, 5115, 5120

Claire Boelema - Wow this was a tricky one! I used the lantern on this sweet couple from the Hollybobs CD as my light source....

Colours used:
Skin - 4115, 4120,4125, 4135
Hair -  1110, 3210, 3125, 3245
Clothes - 5220, 5345, 8150, 8250, 3245, 3230, 1270
Lantern - 9501, 9504, 9506, 9909, 1110, Blender 0000

Wow - such great makes as always from the team!

We're looking forward to seeing your entries! Thanks for joining us again - see you next week!

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